coming from both the outside – the potential of the escalation of the con­flict in Kosovo in late 1990s, as well as the expansionist aspirations of some neighbouring countries to create greater nation-states by seizing pieces of Macedonian territory, and inside – the ethnic tensions, the country iden­tified the European Union and NATO integration as one of the main for­eign policy priorities that will contribute towards the security consolidation. Therefore, after this first period of security consolidation, the Republic of Macedonia needed to move forward in the process of Euro-Atlantic inte­gration, a process that was seen as a contribution towards the country’s security consolidation. The Internal Struggle – Security Implications of the 2001 Conflict The most pressing internal security task for the newly independent and democratic Republic of Macedonia, was to win the loyalty of the various non-Macedonian ethnicities, to have their support and allegiance, and to maintain the interethnic peace. Ethnic tensions between the Albanian com­munity and the majority of the Macedonian population have sporadically surfaced over the past two decades and in 2001 led to a short but violent conflict between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian paramili­taries(Mitrevska, 2013). For a decade, the Republic of Macedonia present­ed itself as a successful model of conflict prevention in the centre of an ex­tremely turbulent region, burdened by wars, ethnic cleansing, and refugees. The country was often referred to as an“oasis of peace”, as a synonym for a multi-ethnic model of coexistence and unique UN preventative mission. The Kosovo crisis in 1999 had a huge influence on the region and on the Republic of Macedonia as well. The crisis gave rise to an enormous influx of ethnic Albanian refugees, which threatened the fragile ethnic balance of Macedonia(Brsakoska Bazerkoska, 2016). There were 379 523 refugees seeking shelter on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. 49 In total, 287 423 refugees stayed in Macedonia for the entire duration of the crisis, while 92 100 refugees were transported by third countries via air bridge. As a con­sequence, the overall population of the Republic of Macedonia increased for 14,77%(Grizold, Mitrevska, Anthony, Bučkovski, Trša, 2012). 49 The numbers are cited according to the research done by one of the coauthors of this chapter and published in A. Grizold, M. Mitrevska, W-St.J. Anthony, V. Bučkovski, I. Tršar, Conflict Prevention and Conflict Menagement in the New Security Context: The Case of the FYRM(2012) University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, pp. 66-67. Chapter 3 – Case Study: The Republic Of North Macedonia 121